第49章

"You know as well as I do,Hugh,how this thing is being manipulated,"he declared at Tom's one Sunday evening;"there was nothing the matter with the Ribblevale Steel Company--it was as right as rain before Leonard Dickinson and Grierson and Scherer and that crowd you train with began to talk it down at the Club.Oh,they're very compassionate.I've heard 'em.Dickinson,privately,doesn't think much of Ribblevale paper,and Pugh"(the president of the Ribblevale)"seems worried and looks badly.

It's all very clever,but I'd hate to tell you in plain words what I'd call it.""Go ahead,"I challenged him audaciously."You haven't any proof that the Ribblevale wasn't in trouble.""I heard Mr.Pugh tell my father the other day it was a d--d outrage.He couldn't catch up with these rumours,and some of his stockholders were liquidating.""You,don't suppose Pugh would want to admit his situation,do you?"Iasked.

"Pugh's a straight man,"retorted Perry."That's more than I can say for any of the other gang,saving your presence.The unpleasant truth is that Scherer and the Boyne people want the Ribblevale,and you ought to know it if you don't."He looked at me very hard through the glasses he had lately taken to wearing.Tom,who was lounging by the fire,shifted his position uneasily.I smiled,and took another cigar.

"I believe Ralph is right,Perry,when he calls you a sentimentalist.

For you there's a tragedy behind every ordinary business transaction.

The Ribblevale people are having a hard time to keep their heads above water,and immediately you smell conspiracy.Dickinson and Scherer have been talking it down.How about it,Tom?"But Tom,in these debates,was inclined to be noncommittal,although it was clear they troubled him.

"Oh,don't ask me,Hughie,"he said.

"I suppose I ought to cultivate the scientific point of view,and look with impartial interest at this industrial cannibalism,"returned Perry,sarcastically."Eat or be eaten that's what enlightened self-interest has come to.After all,Ralph would say,it is nature,the insect world over again,the victim duped and crippled before he is devoured,and the lawyer--how shall I put it?--facilitating the processes of swallowing and digesting...."There was no use arguing with Perry when he was in this vein....

Since I am not writing a technical treatise,I need not go into the details of the Ribblevale suit.Since it to say that the affair,after a while,came apparently to a deadlock,owing to the impossibility of getting certain definite information from the Ribblevale books,which had been taken out of the state.The treasurer,for reasons of his own,remained out of the state also;the ordinary course of summoning him before a magistrate in another state had naturally been resorted to,but the desired evidence was not forthcoming.

"The trouble is,"Mr.Wading explained to Mr.Scherer,"that there is no law in the various states with a sufficient penalty attached that will compel the witness to divulge facts he wishes to conceal."It was the middle of a February afternoon,and they were seated in deep,leather chairs in one corner of the reading room of the Boyne Club.They had the place to themselves.Fowndes was there also,one leg twisted around the other in familiar fashion,a bored look on his long and sallow face.Mr.Wading had telephoned to the office for me to bring them some papers bearing on the case.

"Sit down,Hugh,"he said kindly.

"Now we have present a genuine legal mind,"said Mr.Scherer,in the playful manner he had adopted of late,while I grinned appreciatively and took a chair.Mr.Watling presently suggested kidnapping the Ribblevale treasurer until he should promise to produce the books as the only way out of what seemed an impasse.But Mr.Scherer brought down a huge fist on his knee.

"I tell you it is no joke,Watling,we've got to win that suit,"he asserted.

"That's all very well,"replied Mr.Watling."But we're a respectable firm,you know.We haven't had to resort to safe-blowing,as yet."Mr.Scherer shrugged his shoulders,as much as to say it were a matter of indifference to him what methods were resorted to.Mr.Watling's eyes met mine;his glance was amused,yet I thought I read in it a query as to the advisability,in my presence,of going too deeply into the question of ways and means.I may have been wrong.At any rate,its sudden effect was to embolden me to give voice to an idea that had begun to simmer in my mind,that excited me,and yet I had feared to utter it.

This look of my chief's,and the lighter tone the conversation had taken decided me.

"Why wouldn't it be possible to draw up a bill to fit the situation?"Iinquired.

Mr.Wading started.

"What do you mean?"he asked quickly.

All three looked at me.I felt the blood come into my face,but it was too late to draw back.

"Well--the legislature is in session.And since,as Mr.Watling says,there is no sufficient penalty in other states to compel the witness to produce the information desired,why not draw up a bill and--and have it passed--"I paused for breath--"imposing a sufficient penalty on home corporations in the event of such evasions.The Ribblevale Steel Company is a home corporation."I had shot my bolt....There followed what was for me an anxious silence,while the three of them continued to stare at me.Mr.Watling put the tips of his fingers together,and I became aware that he was not offended,that he was thinking rapidly.

"By George,why not,Fowndes?"he demanded.

"Well,"said Fowndes,"there's an element of risk in such a proceeding Ineed not dwell upon.""Risk!"cried the senior partner vigorously."There's risk in everything.They'll howl,of course.But they howl anyway,and nobody ever listens to them.They'll say it's special legislation,and the Pilot will print sensational editorials for a few days.But what of it?